4 Ways to Improve Your Klout Score

The actual number is often debated but your Klout Score is actually a nice representation of your social activity. Having a well-recognized brand isn’t enough to succeed on social media. A powerful social media presence consists of sharing valuable digital content and consistently engaging audiences – which both have an effect on your Klout Score.

The math behind its algorithm may be complicated, but improving your Klout Score is actually easier than you think. In fact, many of the same best practices you apply to your social media strategy can have a positive impact on the strength of your score. Here are just a few examples.

1. Build a Targeted and Engaged Network

The goal of any social media strategy is to attract and maintain a specific and engaged audience. By identifying the people who are most likely to be interested in your company and content, you can tailor your updates for optimal engagement. Once you’ve pinpointed the demographics that matter most to your strategy, use targeting features to deliver the right content to the right people.

Social networks like Twitter and Facebook offer substantial targeting capabilities. We recommend brushing up on what’s available to you, and these articles can help:

Advertising products by Pinterest and Instagram are quickly catching up to the rest of the market. Pinterest announced in September 2014 that it will soon offer new conversion tracking and audience targeting features for Promoted Pins. The latter has confirmed that it’s using Facebook targeting to deliver more relevant sponsored content.

2. Create Meaningful Content

Content is the most valuable element of your social media strategy. Regardless of which platform you’re using, the content you share must be interesting, informative, relevant, and shareable. Your Klout Score isn’t just a reflection of your activity on social media, but the amalgamation of your followers’ interactions with your content. As more people like, share, and comment on your posts, the better your Klout Score.

Interesting

Whether you’re crafting a 140-character tweet, a long-form Google+ post, or a 15-second Instagram video, it has to be interesting. It needs to catch and hold your audience’s attention long enough for people to want to take action.

When it makes sense to do so, incorporate things like facts, statistics, and funny anecdotes into your content. But make sure that you do this in a way that aligns with your brand’s messaging and personality. If possible, keep your tone conversational and light while avoiding industry and technical jargon.

Many companies create separate social profiles and blogs dedicated to the technical side of their business. This lets individuals opt-in to content that might be viewed as boring or uninteresting by the masses. It’s also a great way to ensure that your content is being delivered to people who are genuinely interested in it.

Informative

At no point should you share content for the sake of publishing something. The updates you produce should provide value and useful information to the reader. The thoroughness of your content will depend on where it’s being published. For example, you can share a quick tip related to your product on Twitter and complement that by diving deeper into the topic on your company blog.

Relevant

Publishing relevant content goes beyond timeliness. Unless there’s an organic segue, everything you share should be relevant to the industry, company, or product that you’re taking about. This is especially important if you’re aspiring to become an influencer or expert on a certain topic.

Now this doesn’t mean that every single update has to include a product plug of some kind, but your messaging should be crafted with specific interests in mind. Your content must be relevant to the audience it’s being written for, which is why it’s critical to know who makes up your target audience.

You can also find great articles and social posts worth sharing with your audience through Klout’s “Create” tab. Content found here is based on the topics you’re interested in as well as the people who follow your social profiles.

Shareable

The three tips above will help to increase your content’s shareability, but there are additional steps you can take to ensure its reach.

For example, clean up your social media posts by shortening long URLs. Not only can this make your updates look more appealing to the eye, but some URL shorteners offer tracking metrics so you know exactly how many people are clicking on your link.

Another option is to add more variety to your updates. For instance, on Google+ you can break up your text posts with basic formatting. On platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, you can use Canva to turn text-heavy statements, quotes, or data into visually appealing updates.

3. Be Mindful of Which Profiles You Connect

Currently you can connect the following accounts to Klout:

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

Google+

LinkedIn

Foursquare

YouTube

Tumblr

Blogger

WordPress.com

Last.fm

Flickr

Yammer

We should note that Klout doesn’t support LinkedIn Company Pages. Additionally, even if you manage several Facebook Pages, you can only link one to your Klout profile. Similarly, only Google+ Profiles are supported by Klout, but there appears to be a work-around available for Google+ Page owners.

Linking your personal profiles to your brand’s Klout account won’t provide you with an accurate representation of its influence or activity. Make sure that you’re connecting the right accounts and avoid adding profiles that your team might be phasing out. For example, Copyblogger deactivated its Facebook Page and now favors Google+. It wouldn’t make much sense for the publication to continue tracking its Facebook activity through Klout.

We also don’t recommend creating new social profiles for the sake of having more accounts to connect to Klout. Make sure that the social platforms and tools that you’re using align with your business goals. If your target audience isn’t using Instagram, refocus your energy on another platform. The interactions and engagement taking place there will have the biggest impact on your score.

4. Be Consistent

Quite often marketers run into one of two problems when it comes to social media:

The well runs dry and they can’t think of anything to publish.

The dam breaks, there’s too much content, and they overwhelm audiences.

Consistency is necessary when executing a successful social media strategy, and it will impact your Klout Score. You might have already noticed your score fluctuate at times, maybe dropping lower during a quiet month only to bounce right back up when publishing resumes.

A content calendar will help you become organized and develop an editorial strategy. It only takes a few seconds to read a tweet, but that doesn’t mean it will only take a few seconds to write it. Crafting the perfect social message often takes multiple steps, people, and even days.

Knowing what content you plan to share ahead of time will make your team more efficient, and that consistency will help manage your audience’s expectations. That said, don’t confuse consistency with dull, underwhelming content. If something isn’t working, don’t continue publishing that type of content just to meet a quota.

Experiment with different types of content at different times but do so in a consistent way. Don’t suddenly go from publishing two posts a day to 20. You should always monitor your performance to see what content is resonating with audiences and what isn’t. If something isn’t pulling in the engagement you hoped for, learn from your analytics and try something else.

The most important thing to take away from this is that your social behavior influences your Klout Score. Any one of the tips above can help to improve your score, and a social media management tool like Sprout Social can help.

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Published on October 13, 2014

Jennifer Beese: Jennifer Beese has worked as a community manager and social media strategist. When she’s not writing, you can find her studying anatomy and physiology—she literally has a skeleton in her closet—or under the stars with her telescope.